Rainbow Six Siege’s first women’s tournament will take place next month thanks to Ubisoft Esports Brazil.
The landmark tournament has been setup to promote prominent female players and casters. Stage one of the Women’s Super League will take place on June 25th and 26th to sort the top four teams. These finalists will travel to Brazil to take part in an on-stage LAN finals, coinciding with the Geek & Game Rio Festival on July 20th-22nd.
Two ladies lineups have already confirmed participation - São Paulo based teams Squadson and Fontt Energy will be squaring off next month. Registration is open for the rest of the spots. 70 per cent of the registration costs will be awarded as prize money for the overall winners, with the remaining 30 per cent going to second place.
Two female casters, Poulie and Nandabpiva, will cover the games. While Ubisoft Esports Brazil hope the tournament will encourage more women to pick up their breaching charges, the WSL has attracted criticism from Siege esports’ only female pro player.
Team Beastcoast captain Goddess stated on Twitter last Saturday: “I don’t like the idea of having gender segregated leagues. Good players play with good players, no matter the gender.”
Justifiable criticism aside, Goddess remains the only female player in professional Rainbow 6 play. Gender recognition is an issue across esports - Overwatch similarly suffers from only a single women participating at the highest level. While gender-segregated events like this attract critique, it’s clear more needs to be done to get girls into the competitive game.
